Genetic engineering and food:A survey of knowledge and attitudes of lebanese 12th grade students in the South; A case study of a socio-scientific issue based intervention in biology classroom

النوع : Mémoire

This study explored the knowledge and attitudes of Lebanese grade 12 students towards a process of biotechnology: genetic engineering and some of its applications, focusing on genetically modified food and organic food. A questionnaire was administered to 470 high school students. The results showed that Lebanese students have poor knowledge but relatively positive attitudes regarding genetic engineering, and limited knowledge but negative attitudes towards genetically modified food. Moreover, students seemed to have adequate knowledge about organic food which was reflected in positive attitudes. These findings called for an innovative science teaching module which incorporated a socio-constructivist approach in teaching genetics. A four- week socio-scientific issue-based (SSI) instructional model was implemented in a secondary biology classroom to measure the change in learning outcomes and achievement of students. The intervention was conducted as a case study in two schools with an embedded quasi-experimental design with two grade 12 classes (n = 60). For the purpose of the study, experimental-control group pretest-posttest design was used with quantitative data collection tools, where the experimental group was taught by SSI-based instruction while control group followed the traditional learning approach. For the analysis of data in this study, paired sample t-tests and independent t-tests were used. The results revealed that students who learned by SSI-based instruction had a significant increase in learning achievement and analytical thinking contrary to those in the control group. The findings also showed that there was no significant difference in achievement according to gender. Therefore, science teachers are encouraged to implement SSI-based instruction which adopts a socio-constructivist approach to learning within their classrooms.